Sparking toy top

ABSTRACT

A toy top having a housing with a gyroscopic-type rotor mounted on a freely rotatable shaft that extends below the housing and terminates at a spinning tip which supports the top in spinning engagement with a playing surface, the toy including pyrophoric means such as flints mounted on a shaft-encircling casing which has axial freedom but which is keyed to the housing, the flints slidably resting upon abradant means such as a sandpaper disc mounted on top of the top&#39;&#39;s rotor so that sparks are created by the rotation of the shaft with respect to the housing which are visible to its user through a transparent portion of the top&#39;&#39;s housing.

United States Patent Baginski et a].

[ Mar. 7, 1972 [54] SPARRING TOY TOP [72] Inventors: Albert R. Baginski;Jacob De Gelder, both of Torrance; Gabriel Marason, Jr., Los

Angeles, all of Calif.

[73] Assignee: Mattel, hm, Hawthorne, Calif.

[22] Filed: Dec. 9, 1970 [21 1 Appl. No.: 96,378

Primary Examiner-Louis G. Mancene Assistant Examiner--Robert F. CuttingAttorney-Seymour A. Scholnick [5 7] ABSTRACT A toy top having a housingwith a gyroscopic-type rotor mounted on a freely rotatable shaft thatextends below the housing and terminates at a spinning tip whichsupports the top in spinning engagement with a playing surface, the toyincluding pyrophoric means such as flints mounted on a shaftencirclingcasing which has axial freedom but which is keyed to the housing, theflints slidably resting upon abradant means such as a sandpaper discmounted on top of the tops rotor so that sparks are created by therotation of the shaft with respect to the housing which are visible toits user through a transparent portion of the top s housing.

4Claims,3 Drawing Figures SPARRING TOY TOP BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThe background of the invention will be set forth in two parts.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention pertains to the field oftoy tops, and more particularly to spinning toy tops with spinning tipsand having means for providing an amusing and entertaining pyrotechnicdisplay within the top.

2. Description of the Prior Art The use of the gyroscopic effect ofspinning bodies for scientific and amusement purposes has long beenknown. Generally, in the amusement or toy field, these devices are knownas tops or spinning tops. Such tops may take any of many differentforms, some being very simple in construction, comprising only a disctransversely mounted along a shaft which is rotated merely by twistingbetween the users fingers. Others are more elaborate and require that acord be wound about a portion of the top, which cord when pulled brisklyby its user, imparts to the top a desired rotation.

As the toy top art developed over the years, the tendency has been todevelop tops having less classical appearance and which utilize moresophisticated configurations, such as tops having housing which concealand protect the rotating annular rim of a rotatable hub member so thatit will not accidentally come into contact with obstructions or theuser's hand and cause it to lose momentum.

In more recent times, the toy industry has moved away from topconfigurations having fixed pivot arms which support the top and hasdeveloped spinning tops which have a housing enclosing an elongated,rotor-carrying shaft freely rotatably supported in and extending fromthe housing, and with a spinning tip in spinning engagement with aplaying surface for supporting the housing, but being independentlyrotatable with respect to the housing. Such a toy is fully described inU.S. Pat. No. 3,523,386, which is assigned to the assignee of thepresent invention.

Even with the above-described attributes, these spinning tops all havethe disadvantage of easily becoming boring to watch. in order to providean entertaining feature, the prior art does utilize sparking mechanism,but these are generally cumbersome, erratic and use spring-biasing meansto hold the pyrophoric material against an abradant surface. This causesexcessive wear on these components and also causes excessive drag on therotating-portion of the top, so that these tops will only function for arelatively short period of time. Although separate accessories may beobtained to increase interest in these toys, it should be evident that atechnique which would cause such added interest and amusement withoutrequiring additional accessories constitutes a significant advancementof the art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the foregoing factors and conditionscharacteristic of the prior art, it is a primary object of the presentinvention to provide a new and improved sparking toy top not subject tothe disadvantages enumerated above, and which includes an internalarrangement that produces an interesting display of sparks visible tothe user.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a sparking toytop which utilizes a floating flint carrier to reduce flint wear anddrag on the tops rotor.

It is also another object of the present invention to provide aneconomical to manufacture sparking toy top having relatively simple andreliable components.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide asignificantly different and amusing sparking toy top utilizing anappreciable number of standard components of a very popular conventionaltoy top such as described in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,523,386.

According to the present invention, a sparking toy top is provided whichis basically of the type having a housing with a gyroscopic-type rotormounted on a freely rotatable shaft that extends below the housing andterminating at a spinning tip which supports the top in spinningengagement with a playing surface. Included is abradant means, includingan abradant surface, carried by and moving with the tops rotor, viewingmeans in the housing for allowing at least a portion of the abradantsurface to be seen, and pyrophoric means disposed in the housing betweenthe abradant surface and the viewing means for slidably engaging theabradant surface and producing a pyrotechnic display visible through theviewing means when the rotor is revolving relative to the tops housing.

The features of the present invention which are believed to be novel areset forth with particularity in the appended claims. The presentinvention, both as to its organization and manner of operation, togetherwith further objects and advantages thereof, may best be understood bymaking reference to the following description taken in conjunction withthe accompanying drawing in which like referenced characters refer tolike components in the several views.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an exploded view, inperspective, of a sparking toy top having a spinning tip in accordancewith the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical section of the assembled toy top shown in FIG. 1;and

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 3-3 of FIG. I.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring again to the drawing,and more particularly to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown a sparking toytop 11 of the type having a housing 12 with an upper section 13 and alower section 15, and with a gyroscopic-type rotor 17 mounted on afreely rotatable shaft 19 supported at its tapered upper end 21 by anupper bearing structure 23, and at its lower portion by a lower bearing25 mounted in a neck portion 27 of the lower housing section 15. Theshaft 19 extends below the lower bearing 25 and terminates at a spinningtip 29 which supports the top 11 in spinning engagement with a playingsurface 31.

The materials used in fabricating the various components of top 11 arenot critical and synthetic materials such as high-impact styrene may beused for the housing 12, material such as Teflon or nylon, for thebearings 23 and 2S, and a metallic composition such as an aluminum alloyor steel for the rotor and shaft.

The upper bearing structure 23 includes an upper tubular body portion 33and a smaller diameter lower tubular bearing portion 35 wherein thetaper shaft end 21 is positioned. The upper portion 33 is provided, inthe molding process, with a recessed opening 37 having a diameter justsufficient to slip over the end portion 39 of a tubular bearing holdingstructure 41 depending from an inner surface 43 of the transparent upperhousing 13. With the holding structure 41 being in coaxial alignmentwith the axis of rotation 45 of the shaft 19, the rotor 17 is free torotate within the housing 12 without the possibility of touching thehousing even when roughly handled.

The axial movement of the shaft 19 is limited by lower ends 47 ofseveral longitudinal ridges 49 on the shaft itself and by the length ofthe holding structure 41 and the depth dimension of the upper and lowerrecesses in the bearing structure 23. A relatively small amount of axialplay is provided to insure that the shaft will not bind in its bearingswhich would cause undesired friction in the bearing areas.

A cylindrical casing structure 51 is also provided. It may also bemolded from high-impact styrene material and includes a decreaseddiameter upper rim portion 53 with radial slots 55 therein, and a pairof oppositely extending holders 57 in which are respectively held bodiesof pyrophoric material such as a pair of depending flints 59. The flintsmay be molded in the form of rods and may be integrally molded with theeasing 51. The diameter dimension of the opening 61 in the casingstructure 51 is such that the latter will easily move in an axialdirection over the upper bearing structure 23 and its holding structure41.

in order to prevent the casing 51 from rotating with the rotor 17, theinner surface 43 of the upper housing 13 includes a plurality ofdepending radially distributed ribs 63 which correspond to the slots 55in the casing rim portion 53. The slots 55 are slightly wider than thewidth of the ribs 63 which allows the casing structure 51 to move up anddown while being keyed to the top housing 12.

The flints 59 are slidably supported on an abradant means such as anannular disc 65 having an abradant upper surface 67. The abradant meansmay be an integral part of the rotor 17 or, as shown, it may be anappropriately fashioned piece of conventional sandpaper or the likeglued to the rotors upper rim 69.

The top 11 may be assembled by first inserting and either crimpingand/or bonding the lower bearing 25 in an aperture 71 at the bottom ofthe neck portion 27. The tip 29 is then inserted through the bearingscentral aperture 73 as far as the ribs 49 will allow and a starting tip75 of a soft rubberlike material such as urethane is forced on a splinedportion 77 of the shaft 19, as clearly illustrated in FIG. 2. As notedabove, the abradant disc 65, is then mounted on the rotors rim 69, Ofcourse, the disc may be attached prior to the shaft being rotatably heldin the housing lower section 15.

The upper bearing 23 is then mounted over the shafts tapered upper end21, as shown, and the casing structure 51 slipped over the upper tubularbody portion 33 of the upper bearing before the upper housing 13 isplaced over the assembly so that its ribs 63 move into the correspondingslots 55 in the casing 51, Conversely, the upper housing 13 may be firstinverted and the casing properly inserted over the holder 41 so that theslots 55 register with the ribs 63 before inserting the upper bearing23, with its largest opening 37 over the rim 39 of the holder structure41, coaxially within the casings aperture 61. The lower housing 15, withits rotor, etc., is then inverted and positioned over the upper housing13 so that the upper end 21 of the shaft 19 is inverted in the bearingopening of the bearing portion 35, before permanently joining thehousing halves at their common seam 79 by any conventional means such asan adhesive or bonding agent, for example.

In operation, the top 11 is activated by gripping the housing and movingthe top in a generally lateral or curved direction with an outer surface81 of the starting tip 75 in contact with the playing surface 31,whereby the shaft 19, the rotor 17 and the abradant disc 65 are causedto rotate relative to the housing 12 and the flint holding casingstructure 51 which is keyed thereto. Because of the sliding fit betweenthe casing and the keying rib 63, the casing exerts an even but notexcessive pressure between the flints 59 and the abradant surface 67 ofthe disc 65 for a relatively long and active life. This sliding actionbetween the flints and the disc surface causes a very interesting andentertaining pyrotechnic display by a shower of sparks 83 visiblethrough the transparent upper housing section 13.

From the foregoing, it should be evident that a very entertaining andsimple-to-fabricate sparking toy top has been described which may beeconomically fabricated from the basic components of prior art toy topsof the spinning tip variety, for example.

It is again to be pointed out that the materials and processesspecifically identified in the fabrication of the invention are notcritical and any material or process generally considered suitable inthe art may be utilized.

It should be further clear from the foregoing that the invention issusceptible to numerous modifications and embodiments which are allwithin the attainment of one skilled in the art.

We claim:

1. In a toy top of the type having a housing with a viewing portion andan abrasive disc-carrying gyroscopic-type rotor mounted on a freelyrotatable shaft rotatably supported by upper and lowerbearings, theshaftextending below the housing and terminating at a spinning tip whichsupports the top in spinning engagement with a playing surface andpyrophoric means disposed in and keyed to the housing between theabrasive disc and the viewing portion, the improvement comprismg:

a cylindrical casing having a pair of flints depending therefrom saidcasing having a centrally positioned axial opening through which anupper portion of said shaft is disposed and having an upper rim portionwith at least one radially disposed slot therein; and

a keying tab depending from an inner surface of said housing andslidably registering with each of said slots.

2. In a toy top according to claim 1, wherein said housing also includesa cylindrical structure disposed coaxial with the axis of rotation ofsaid shaft and depending from an uppermost portion of said housing; andwherein said upper bearing includes an upper tubular body portion withan inner dimension to slidably fit coaxially over the lower portion ofsaid cylindrical structure and with an outer dimension less than theinner diameter of said axial opening in said casing, said upper bearingalso including a lower tubular body portion with an inner bearingaperture axially disposed in the bottom thereof to rotatably hold theupper extremity of said shaft.

3. In a toy top according to claim 1, wherein the lower portion of saidcasing includes a pair of relatively short oppositely extending arms,each fixedly holding one of said depending flints.

4. In a toy top according to claim 2, wherein said keying tabs extendbetween the upper portion of said cylindrical structure and said innersurface of said housing.

1. In a toy top of the type having a housing with a viewing portion andan abrasive disc-carrying gyroscopic-type rotor mounted on a freelyrotatable shaft rotatably supported by upper and lower bearings, theshaft extending below the housing and terminating at a spinning tipwhich supports the top in spinning engagement with a playing surface andpyrophoric means disposed in and keyed to the housing between theabrasive disc and the viewing portion, the improvement comprising: acylindrical casing having a pair of flints depending therefrom saidcasing having a centrally positioned axial opening through which anupper portion of said shaft is disposed and having an upper rim portionwith at least one radially disposed slot therein; and a keying tabdepending from an inner surface of said housing and slidably registeringwith each of said slots.
 2. In a toy top according to claim 1, whereinsaid housing also includes a cylindrical structure disposed coaxial withthe axis of rotation of said shaft and depending from an uppermostportion of said housing; and wherein said upper bearing includes anupper tubular body portion with an inner dimension to slidably fitcoaxially over the lower portion of said cylindrical structure and withan outer dimension less than the inner diameter of said axial opening insaid casing, said upper bearing also including a lower tubular bodyportion with an inner bearing aperture axially disposed in the bottomthereof to rotatably hold the upper extremity of said shaft.
 3. In a toytop according to claim 1, wherein the lower portion of said casingincludes a pair of relatively short oppositely extending arms, eachfixedly holding one of said depending flints.
 4. In a toy top accordingto claim 2, wherein said keying tabs extend between the upper portion ofsaid cylindrical structure and said inner surface of said housing.